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Thursday, February 10, 2011

4Chan Turns in Teen For Planning School Massacre

4Chan has landed itself in the middle of yet another FBI investigation. This time, though, the site is cooperating with authorities after a Michigan-based member named Ali Saad posted threats to go on a shooting rampage at his community college. Saad insists that his postings were in jest, but his claims that he could top the "high score" of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho set off alarms with members of the /b/ community. In one of the messages, Saad said that he planned to stream his massacre on Stickam, a popular video streaming site. Members of 4Chan alerted the FBI and the site turned over records of Saad's access. The FBI raided his home in Dearborn in late November and confiscated his computers, on which they found some child pornography. The student is now facing a pair of felony charges for posting the threats and for downloading child porn.

While Saad claims he was not serious about turning an AK-47 on of his lecture classes, investigators found evidence that he had extensively researched past shootings like that at Columbine and Virginia Tech. While it's impossible to know if Saad actually planned to kill his fellow students, we can safely say that even joking about such a thing is a terrible idea. Add that to the unavoidable child pornography charges, and we'd say Saad may be looking at a hefty jail sentence when his trial commences on February 25th.